Story

Kyle isn't allowed to keep his new pet elephant because it's too big. The boys find Dr. Mephesto to try and genetically engineer a smaller elephant.

Description

During a class discussion on genetic engineering, Kyle hits upon the idea of combining an elephant with a pig. He already owns an elephant (which he got via mail order) and Cartman has a potbellied pig named Fluffy. A classmate named Terrance (no relation to Terrance and Phillip) bets he can clone an entire human being before Kyle can produce his elephant/pig. The race is on.

The boys visit a "genetic engineering ranch" on the edge of town, where they meet the mysterious Dr. Mephesto. He tells them it's impossible to splice elephant and pig DNA. Chef suggests a different tactic -- get the animals drunk. The boys tank up their pets on beer and the animals finally make sweet love.

Meanwhile, Mephesto (whose son turns out to be Terrance) creates a gigantic, misshapen clone of Stan. The monster escapes and goes on a rampage through South Park. Stan catches up with the creature, calms him and lures him to his house. He wants it to beat up his sister, Shelley, who regularly stomps the crap out of him. But the plan fails when Big Stan goes berserk, hurling Kenny into a microwave and cooking him to death. Only the timely intervention of Shelly, who drops the clone with one punch, restores order. Mephesto arrives and shoots Big Stan in the head, killing him.

The school's science fair suddenly becomes much less interesting. Terrance, deprived of his human clone, displays a five-assed monkey instead. At the last moment, word comes that Cartman's pig has given birth. Its offspring is brought to class, where the kids notice it looks a lot like Mr. Garrison.

"Oh, gee," Mr. Garrison says. "Isn't that an amazing coincidence? What are the odds of that?" He gives the boys first prize.

What I Learned Today

"All I've ever wanted was to genetically engineer something useful. But I've failed. Perhaps we shouldn't be toying with God's creations. Perhaps we should just leave nature alone to its simple one-assed schematics."

Memorable Quotes

"I would NEVER let a woman kick my ass! If she tried anything, I'd be like 'Hey! You get your bitch ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie!!'" (Eric Cartman

"Well, spank my ass and call me Charlie. Isn't this exciting, two A+ students in a cloning war!" (Mr. Garrison)

Locations

Original Songs

Behind The Scenes

Matt and Trey originally wanted to call this episode "An Elephant Fucks A Pig". Not surprisingly the network brass didn't go for it.

Originally Shelley was to douse Stan with an accelerant and set him on fire. Because the network feared this might encourage copycat behavior among children, the scene was deleted. So now there's a moment where Stan is seen inexplicably lying in a puddle of liquid.

Where Did The Idea Come From

This episode is a commentary on genetic engineering and could be inspired by Dolly the sheep, the first successfully cloned mammal back in 1996. Many other mammals were cloned afterwards such as pigs, deer, horses and bulls.

The character Shelley is based on Trey's sister who has the same name. When they were kids she regularly bullied him, once even tossing him down a flight of stairs. Stan wishing his mutant clone to attack Shelley is also based on Trey's childhood fantasy of a larger version of himself beating up his sister.

Pop Culture References

Shout Outs

Dr. Mephesto is a parody of actor Marlon Brando's portrayal of Dr. Moreau in the 1996 version of The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Both Mephesto and Chef state the lyrics of a fictional Loverboy song explain that you can't splice elephant and pig DNA. The line goes, "Da'n Do-A, Pig and Elephant D-N-A Just Won't Splice."

The plot of this episode has great parallels to the classic tale Frankenstein.

When the boys go to Officer Barbrady for help finding the mutant clone, he tells the kids "they've been watching The X-Files too much".

The last line of the episode "That'll do, pig" is a reference to the 1995 movie Babe about a gallant pig who wants to be a sheep dog.

Elton John who sings "Love Gravy" with Chef to help the pig and elephant get in the mood.

Bonus Factoids

Pointless Observations

Dr. Mephesto is revealed to be a Buddhist. ("Oh, thank Buddha I found you boys!")

Cartman tells Kyle to go back to San Francisco "with the rest of the Jews." Cartman likely has Jews mixed up with hippies, another group he hates that is commonly associated with the US city. Interestingly Kyle and his family does move to San Francisco later in "Smug Alert."

It is revealed by Kyle that Cartman doesn't get grades higher than a D. On the other hand, starting with this episode Trey and Matt decided to write Kyle as the good "school smart" character.

The cafeteria scene with the boys and Pip was originally in the pilot episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" but was cut for time. Compared to the rest of the episode, the scene's animation is a bit more crude.

There is a head of a Visitor on the "Our Pets" pegboard in Mr. Garrison's classroom.

Although he first appeared in "Volcano", this episode establishes that Randy is Stan's father.